Bio:

Zerthun “Zerti” Mekuria is a young artist based in Utah. Zerthun is disciplined in multiple art mediums, but is currently focusing on painting. She has shown multiple works in various exhibitions throughout Utah, and has gained regional awards for her work. Slowly finding her own voice in her artwork, Zerthun currently bases her artwork on her personal African American experience, working to honor her heritage as an Ethiopian while being heavily influenced and surrounded by American culture. She uses her art to visualize this experience, showing how this influences her outlook on life. Her art reflects her personal takes on identity, culture, and interactions from day-to-day life. Despite this, she still aims to have others connect with her artwork based on their personal upbringings. She works to develop her own voice in the art world and make art that can cause conversation. Zerthun plans on pursuing art professionally, wanting to exhibit her work in more galleries nationally in the future.

Artist Statement:

My artwork reflects the experience of living in modern American society as an African American while honoring and celebrating my heritage and con to my Ethiopian roots. I’ve grown up within two different cultures, one where change, reinvention, and cultural evolution are celebrated, and another that prides itself in their roots, cultural practices, and tenacious historical strength. Each culture expresses itself in different ways and pride themselves within their self-expressions. But when overlapped, their differences can feel very stark. I use my art as an open space to explore the experiences of coexisting within these two communities, and seeing how being raised within two communities shaped my identity through the intersection of cultures. I utilize art as I think it is one of the most powerful tools to create a statement with, its bright and vibrant colors being something unignorable in a world that ignores such dull feelings that I thought were unexplainable. I aim to not only bring social justice to fruition through my work, but also celebrate the aspects of my life that separate me from the community. In a time attempting to strip cultures that haven't been westernized away from America, I feel a responsibility to grow my work's cultural influence. I utilize Ethiopian art practices within my work to convey this, using bright colors, Ethiopian textile-inspired patterns, and a focus on sharp portriature within my work. I focus on the faces within my work as I want my work to feel more personal to the audience. To see another human forever immortalized in strength, fear, sadness, etc., makes the individual carry a part of the image's baggage, as that is the one thing we can all relate to. We may not all look the same as the painting, but we have all felt the emotion it conveys.